Making books with children

Making Books with children
By Marisa Constantinides

Making big or small books with children is not a novel idea; in fact, all you need to know about this is included in the wonderful series of books listed at the end of this short post, with some new ideas which include digital storybooks.

Children will love making various types of books whether they can write or are still at the pre-writing stage. Some Objectives:

• To retell and illustrate a favourite story or fairy tale, e.g. Cinderella, or other favourite
• To share information from a science lesson or series of lessons – for example, a book about snow, a book about saving water
• To copy and illustrate the lines of a poem and chant or song they learnt recently
• To showcase their own imaginative stories, dialogues and poems or rhymes

Even if they cannot write yet, they can always dictate their story to their teacher and by the process of watching the written word emerge on the page or by looking at it afterwards, they begin their road to reading.

The children will be using their fine motor skills for cutting round shapes, colouring in pictures, gluing shapes in place, as well as their artistic abilities and imaginative, creative thinking;  there is value across many levels, language development and literacy being of prime importance.

How to do it!  

1. Decide on the type of book; this can be...

• Simple shape book
  
• A pop up book
• A three-folded book
• An accordion shaped book
• A flap book
• A wheel book

2. Decide whether your pupils will be making

• one big size book for the whole class
• smaller group versions
• an individual book which they can take home

3. Find and bring materials to class

• coloured thick paper or cardboard
• glue
• colouring materials
• magazine pictures
• stickers
• glitter
• rounded scissors
• other materials, e.g. pieces of fabric, dried flowers, very small objects, etc..

How?

With children who are still at the pre-writing stage

• you can ask them to tell you their story and you can write it for them
• you can give them the words written on card or paper slips and guide them to glue them in the right place and order

With early writers, you can help them by asking them to

• trace words or even whole phrases
• fill in some words or phrases in gaps you have created and later copy them into their book
• copy a familiar story or fairy tale into a book they have made

More independent writers can

• write their own stories in rough first and then copy onto the book after the teacher has helped ‘fix’ any mistakes
• write their own poems or other type of text – song lyrics, rap or short descriptive paragraphs

Digital Story books



Online tools like Storybird can make the children’s efforts look very smart and professional and  I am very fond of those as well, but I also believe that making their own hand made versions has got great educational value for the children.

After the children have finished,  you can leave their book on the server, go for the paid version if you want to print their book, or if you want to do it for free, you screen capture all the pages and print them as images.

Here are some examples of Storybirds....

Nana Can I Have A... on Storybird




My Heart Hurts When... on Storybird

Mixbook is another great site which I learned from Natasa Bozic Grojic’ s blogpost and here is the story she made with her son, “The Boy who listened”

| View Sample Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book

But even a simple powerpoint slide show story can be great! Here is one I made with my nephew when he was about 5 years old using summer snapshots on the beach.

A Day On The Beach

Picture this:  A teacher is holding up a big book.

A group of children is gathered round her looking at the illustrations, listening to a story, acting out parts of it, involved  in the telling and retelling, noticing small details, repeating new words, learning new concepts.

Getting children to develop a love for books means spending time with books, reading them and making them. Whether you are teaching children in their mother tongue or in a foreign language, you will notice the great boost to language acquisition in the children.

Making their own books is the next logical step and early literacy teachers can apply everything they know to these enjoyable and memorable to children reading and early (or later) writing activities.



Resources

4. Make Books with Children Series: Here you can find a great range of books with ideas for making books with your classses. You may want to begin with the Making Books with Children.

Making Books with Children

1. For Pop up books, you can visit here to watch and show the children short little movies of how Dave Carter, an author of popup books made some of his pop ups and the same page leads to some wonderful shapes in pdf format that you can copy and print out for your pupils to make their own books.
2. Free Shape Books where you can find shapes to print
3. ThinkQuest – A wonderful  site where you can find illustrated instructions  for many types of book shapes

About Marisa Constantinides 


Marisa Constantinides is the Director of Studies of CELT Athens and is responsible for the design and implementation of all the programmes offered by CELT.

Marisa's main qualifications related to teaching are the RSA Diploma in TEFLA (DTEFLA), a precursor to the Cambridge DELTA Diploma, and an M.A. in Applied Linguistics from the University of Reading in the UK. Her involvement in Teacher Development Programmes started at the Hellenic American Union where she ran workshops for colleagues and State School Teachers, then with Longman Publications running numerous training seminars for them all over Greece.

Marisa Constantinides has written materials for children (Basic Grammar Workbooks 1, 2, & 3 published by English Schoolbook Publications), activity books for Cambridge Exams set texts, and numerous articles on Language, Foreign Language Teaching and Education. You can follow her English blog at http://marisaconstantinides.edublogs.org/

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A huge thank you goes to Marisa Constantinides for sharing this wonderful post with us!  Please leave your comments for Marisa below....

Deborah

Preschool proof your classroom resources

Let's face it - laminating posters, file folder games, and bulletin board pieces can get expensive. I wish I could offer up some great alternatives to laminating but all I can tell you is that in the long run, laminating produces the best results.

In the old days, I used clear contact paper to laminate my resources but this was a difficult task. If I wasn't sticking the contact paper to a table I was putting it on crooked or leaving huge wrinkles down the center of my pretty posters - ugh! So eventually I invested in my first laminator. I actually still have the same one today. It is about 20 years old and I have had to disassemble the whole thing a few times to make it work but it does still work!

My laminator is an Ibico PL - 260 IC. It is very heavy and can only laminate paper up to 8.5 inches wide. I have bought a few newer laminators over the years but they all broke down. This exact model may no longer be available but it is my old faithful.

I usually purchase my laminating pouches from an office supply store like Staples or Office Depot but there are suppliers online as well. There are also different thicknesses but I find the 3ml does just fine for my purposes.

The problem with a small laminator is that you can only laminate small projects. One of the schools I work with has a large laminator that handles posters and large displays but let me tell that the price of that baby is up there. The other option for large pieces is to go back to the office supply store or a school supply store and have them laminate for you.

When you go to laminate small pieces, cut the pieces out first. If you laminate first then cut, the seal around the edges gets broken and chances are your pieces will start to be exposed or just slide out. ALWAYS use the cardboard pouch cover when laminating small pieces and flimsy paper or the paper will get wrapped around the roller inside the laminator. That is what I discovered the hard way but I am now quite proficient at taking my laminator apart and putting it back together again. I rarely laminate just plain pieces of paper. I only use card stock or paper with a heavier weight for best results.

If you are getting big wrinkles or tiny bubbles then your heat may be set too high. If the laminating paper isn' sticking well to the paper, then your heat may be set too low. Read the directions that come with the laminator for more info. Always put the closed end of the laminating pouches through the laminator first!

Is it worth the investment?
I think it is in the long run. I still have many of those same games and bulletin board pieces I laminated back in the old days. I also think laminating makes everything so much more shiny and pretty. Avoid laminating photos though - especially ones you value the most. Better to try that out on ones you really don't care about.

What else can be laminated?
I laminate home-made books that my preschool students have made together as a class. Then I put the book in the reading center for the children to view at will. I also laminate journal covers and name cards for the kids to use all year long. When the children need to see their name card, they just whip it out and use it. Most crayon and some markers can be wiped (or scrubbed) off of a laminated piece of card stock but not all.



See what My Bilingual Boys thinks about contact paper:)
See when to laminate and when not to laminate by Kindergarten's 3 R's: Respect, Resources, and Rants

Teaching preschoolers about the authors of the books they love

Teaching preschool simply would not be complete without the wonderful books available to young children. There are awesome authors out there writing terrific children's books and it is a good idea to help your preschoolers discover who they are.

Get to know the author first
Before presenting an author to your students, you need to get a feel for who the author is. This will make it more natural for you to have casual conversations with your students about the author. Let me illustrate this a bit further.

Let's say you have a friend who just wrote a new children's book and you can't wait to share it with your students. You would more than likely start by telling the kids that your friend wrote the book. Then you might go on to describe your friend, what he or she is like, why he or she wrote the book, and how the illustrations were created. In other words, if you feel like you know the author, you will want to share some information about the author.

Use the internet to learn about the author
The internet offers great opportunities to get connected with many terrific children's authors. Some authors have websites where they share their books and extra materials. Other authors have even started their own blogs and facebook pages which even give you a more personal perspective.

Eric Carle
Eric Carle is a great example of an author that has given much to the field of early childhood education.  Eric's blog shares simple stories of how or why a book was written. As you read his blog, you gain greater insight into Eric as well as greater insight into the book itself.

One of Eric's latest post talks about he came to write his book "Pancakes, Pancakes". Eric writes, ""My grandmother always had a gift for me. An egg from her chickens, a jar of raspberry jam. She would tell me, "Here, Eric. Have an egg. Give it to your mother to make a pancake for you."" Eric's website offers additional materials and resources.

Denise Fleming
Denise Fleming has a facebook fan page and a website. On Denise's facebook site, she shares short little snippets about her personal life such as she has a dog named Sylvester.

On her website, Denise provides online activities to go along with each of her books as well as an "about" page where you can get to know her a little better.

Just Google it!
There are so many authors out there with websites that this post certainly wouldn't be able to share them all but you can do a simple online search by using the author's name or if you don't know the name, search for the name of the author's book and that will eventually lead you back to the author.

Why is it a good idea to share information about the author with your students?
As preschoolers get to know more about the author, they will develop a greater appreciation for the books in your classroom. It isn't about getting your students to remember a name, it is about introducing a real life person that brings meaningful experiences and words into their lives.

You will not be able to share information about every author you ever read - so don't feel under pressure to do so. Choose authors who have written some of the children's books you value the most and start there. As you do, you will naturally be able to share what you know with your students. Just like introducing an old friend.

Integrating across the curriculum
This is a big fancy way of saying that as you discover more about how an author or illustrator creates his work, you will find ways to expand and integrate those ideas into other areas of your curriculum.

For example, Eric Carle is known for using tissue paper to illustrate his books. As you share this information with your students, you can then add an art activity using tissue paper and help the children connect the dots between the the author/illustrator, the book they have just read, and the possibilities of tissue paper art.

Wrap it Up
Remember, it is great to introduce an author' or illustrator's name but that won't build connections for your preschoolers alone. Take time to discover more so that you can build connections between life and art for your students.

Be sure to Follow my Blog!

Get great preschool ideas from early childhood bloggers

There are many wonderful bloggers out there that provide great resources for preschool teachers. There are blogs with descriptions and photos of creative art projects, blogs about curriculum, blogs by favorite children's authors, and blogs with great ideas to share with your parents.

You have managed to find this blog and I want to help you discover more great blogs for early childhood educators. Reading through blogs from others who are passionate about early childhood education can ...

• Inspire new and creative ideas for your classroom
• Lead to new connections with other early childhood professionals
• Introduce you to latest trends or ideas in early childhood education
• Motivate and Inspire you

Blogging may seem simple but it actually takes a great deal of hard work. When you find a blog that you really love or that has sparked some good ideas, be sure to follow that blog. Following a blog lets the blogger know that there are people out there that share the same passion. A shared passion motivates the blogger to keep writing more!.

Preschool blogs you may like
As promised, here are some early childhood bloggers that offer terrific ideas and resources. If you find one you like be sure and click on "follow".

Excellence in Early Childhood Education (This one!)
Little Fingers That Play
Preschool Playbook
Imagination Soup
The ABC Home Preschool Blog
Raising Itty-Bitty Bookworms
Annies Alphabet Home Childcare
Pre-K Pages
More Than a Children's Music Class
Sippycups and Fingerprints
Homeschool Creations
Play is Essential
The Ramblings of a Crazy Woman
Eric Carle's Blog
Room To Grow: Making Early Childhood Count
Discussions Regarding the Preschool Observation Checklist and Evaluation Tool (POCET)


Follow my Blog

Now click on: See why your preschoolers should go outside everyday!


Having trouble Following a Blog?
many blogs now have google connect or require another form of login ID. This helps protect the blogger from spammers and helps the reader to keep track of his or favorites. If the "follow" link does not work then click on "sign in" anyway and a series of sign-in choices should pop up that you can select from.